ok so ive been licensed for about 4 months now, general class, mostly just listening and occasionally jumping on 40m when im brave enough. but every single time i hear someone talking or read logs online theres all these weird codes like QSB and QRM and QTH and honestly i just nod along like i know what theyre saying but i dont. i tried googling it and got like a wikipedia page that listed every single one which was way too overwhelming. is there like a short list of the ones people actually use day to day? and also why do we even use these, is it just tradition at this point or is there actually a reason

yeah totally understand the overwhelm, that wikipedia list is brutal for a new person. honestly most guys only use maybe a dozen or so codes regularly. QTH is your location, QSL means acknowledged or confirming a contact, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural noise like lightning crashes, QSB is when the signal fades in and out, QRZ means who is calling me, QRP is low power operation and theres a whole culture around that one. QSY means change frequency. QRX means standby or wait. and QRT means shutting down, like signing off for the night.

as for why we still use them, yeah its mostly tradition at this point but they did originate back when morse was dominant and you could send a whole concept in three letters which saved a ton of time. they still get used in CW contacts pretty heavily for that reason but on phone people just sort of use them as shorthand out of habit. you'll pick it up fast just by listening, dont stress it

QRN drove me absolutely crazy my first summer operating, kept hearing people say it and i thought it was some kind of localized interference term for months lol. also one thats not Q code but youll hear a ton is 73 which just means best regards, like a friendly sign off. and 88 is sent to close friends sometimes. oh and RST reports, like 59 or 57, those numbers mean readability signal tone and you'll hear those constantly in every contact basically. not Q codes but same idea of shorthand that sounds like jargon until someone explains it